"Fake Articles" in Home Fire

 Towards the end of the book, the media begins to play a large role in the plot of the story. The character I think of specifically when I think about the media is Aneeka. Throughout her section of the book there are multiple articles written about the events taking place. I thought it was a really creative choice for Shamsie to add these fake articles as a way of telling the story. For me, it forced me to really focus on what was happening and use context clues to discover what happened to Parvaiz. The contrast between the articles and what we saw as a reader was very stark. The first time I noticed this difference was when in the article exposing Parvaiz's death they misspell his name as "Pervys." Although this was subtle, I think it displayed exactly what Shamsie intended. To me, it showed how little care they put into the article, not even getting his name right and of how little his importance was. In another crude article, they write their opinions on Aneeka, calling her names in an immature manner. Their perspective on the story felt so wrong and uneducated as someone who had known the entire backstory. However, I think Shamsie placed this at the perfect time so I as a reader would feel sympathy towards Aneeka and Parvaiz, forcing me onto their side further. These "articles" within the book were something I had never seen before in a novel, but really loved. Not only did the break up the sections, but they also showed more perspectives of outsiders looking into their story. This idea has inspired me to think more creatively in my writing and come up with new untraditional ways to tell a story.